[whywhywhywhy]

> not even Apple goes this low.

Apple goes just as low, OS X asks me every day to update to High Sierra and the option is only "Later" and it can't be swiped away quickly like a normal notification.

I ran an iPhone 4 for until the iPhone 7 launch, I used to keep it on iOS7 because after iOS4 rendered my 3G unusable I knew to no longer update. Every single morning it would ask me to update, which I had to carefully dismiss. It would always download the update filling up my phone to the brim which I would have to then manually delete. If my phone was full it would give me another option offering to temporarily delete apps (Which it claimed would have data restored from iCloud but I knew they would not).

My Mothers iPad auto-updated locking her out of her painting app (Brushes, as used by David Hockney), I had to use a dodgy 3rd party app to extract her documents or they'd be lost for good.

At least Microsoft gives you options to downgrade and supports old OSes, unlike Apple who stops handing out the encryption keys.

[wqweto]

Stock iPhone 4 does not support anything newer than iOS 7 - what morning updates are you talking about?

[whywhywhywhy]

Sorry I meant 4S, which supports up to OS 9.

I notice a lot of Apple users who update devices and OS religiously get defensive as if this stuff doesn't happen. I encourage them to try to live behind updates for once and see how bad the user experience can get.

[dvfjsdhgfv]

They follow their traditional policy. A huge part of Apple's income comes from hardware. They will use every method to convince you to continue the vicious upgrade circle, whether you care about new features or not.

A customer that is satisfied with their current setup is a lost customer. So Apple's only hope is to make sure the battery is as difficult to replace as possible - because this component is sure to fail sooner or later.

[scarface74]

You're talking about every other phone manufacturer except Apple. Once you buy an Android phone, the company has no reason to support you with security updates or OS updates. They have no reason to believe that you will buy another phone from then two years later.

Apple on the other hand still makes money off of customers -- app sells, services, music, media, etc.

[stordoff]

> A customer that is satisfied with their current setup is a lost customer.

A satisfied customer is a customer who will eventually come back (want something new, lost or damaged device, or just general wear and tear). A dissatisfied customer will look elsewhere.

[fileeditview]

But this satisfied customer probably wouldn't buy every iteration of the iPhone. I guess that's what the parent was aiming at.